I hope this year you give yourself time to do at least one of the things that fill your life with happiness, but you have postponed for a while!

2018 was the year where I focused my energy on spreading the knowledge of GTP among my colleagues in academia. Curiously, I ended up traveling longer distances as never before, on several occasions to USA to Yale and Harvard Medical School, and the year started with the conference MindCare hosted at the MIT.

It was great to have the opportunity to share my research at two prominent mental health hospitals in the USA; the McLean Hospital and the Connecticut Mental Health Center. These visits together with presenting my research at the World Congress of Psychiatry hosted in Mexico City connected me emotionally with the work of my father, psychiatrist Angel Ortiz Escudero.

I have always tried to encourage young people to follow their passion and to take the topic they choose for their thesis seriously because you never know where these first steps can take you. My father’s legacy has inspired me to innovate and pursue my professional passion, just as he did, so allow me to take a short break from the highlights of GTP and tell you about my father’s work. His seminal thesis was the foundation for establishing the first farm for the mentally ill based on occupational ergo-therapy in Latin-America “Granja de Recuperacion Mental San Pedro del Monte, a model institution that was replicated in other countries. His work substantially contributed to the psychiatry in Mexico, most importantly it dignified and humanized the treatment of psychiatric patients in the 1940s.

Continuing with the highlights of GTP, I finally had the chance to return to my dream city after 18 years, Vancouver and visit the University of British Columbia. Amazing, charming people and nature filled me with energy and hope.

This visit was followed by a talk on the psychology of video games and GTP to young people at the Science World at Telus World of Science in Vancouver.

My last trip of the year was a speed visit to London to share my research with inspiring colleagues experts on hallucination and psychosis at the ECHR meeting. A visit that brought back good memories of my time in the UK.

In 2018, my research on GTP was featured in diverse areas, highlighting the multiple applications and possibilities of GTP.

For the first time, the video game industry openly recognized the post-play effects observed in my research on GTP in the campaign and development of “Tetris Effect”, the latest incarnation of “Tetris”.

I’m super excited to interchange perspectives on my research #GameTransferPhenomena in my talk: “Transfer of Gaming Experiences: Considering the Impact of Game Design Beyond Gameplay” with the #videogames masters at Develop:Brighton in July! #ImASpeaker @DevelopConf

October 12th- University of British Columbia, Vancouver. “When the mind keeps playing after the game has been turned off: Game Transfer Phenomena”

October- Visit Brain, Attention, and Reality Lab, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

September 27-30 World Congress of Psychiatry in Mexico City. “GTP and problematic smartphone use in an augmented reality game” & “Can sensory intrusions and motoric activations caused by the use of technology become pathological?”

About Author

Dr Angelica B. Ortiz de Gortari is a psychologist. Currently, a Marie Curie COFUND Postdoctoral Research fellow in Cyberpsychology at the Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit at the University of Liège. Critical inquiry on the psychosocial implications of interactive media technologies has been her professional passion since undergraduate school when she conducted one of the first studies on internet addiction. Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP) is her area of research expertise, for which she has won awards. Dr Ortiz de Gortari’s research has been featured in different media worldwide including New Scientist, BBC World Service, The International Herald Tribune, The Guardian, Discovery News, and History Channel News. Her research on GTP has also inspired an episode of the TV series CSI: Cyber. She has published academically and presented at several international conferences. The goal of her research is maximising the psychological and social benefits of interactive virtual technologies while reducing the potential risks it can present to some individuals.